To allow for feasible comparisons, we define HGFs as the one percent of firms with the highest growth over three different time periods, three, five and seven years. We considered other shares of the firm population, such as the five or ten percent of firms with the highest growth. However, besides the one percent definition, it was not possible to apply precise cut- off levels, since a great many firms showed the growth required to enter as the last firm using other thresholds. This would necessitate including some of these firms among HGFs arbitrarily and excluding the rest of them. Moreover,.
